intense

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɪnˈtens/^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French intense and directly from Latin intēnsus (“stretched, strained, tight”),^[2][3][4] the past participle of intendere (“to stretch out, strain”).^[3][2] See intend.^[3][2] The OED notes that Latin had already split the two past participles: intēnsus kept the physical sense “stretched”, while intentus came to mean mentally stretched, eager, which gave intent.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of a quality or condition, very great or strong: about 1400 in the OED, before 1425 in Barnhart, the early 15th century in Etymonline.^[5][2][3]

Semantic evolution

Of mental action, strained or strenuous, is from 1645.^[5] Of persons, feeling deeply or highly strung, is from 1640 in the OED and the 1630s in Etymonline.^[5][3] Of a thing with a quality in a very high degree, as an intense colour, it is from 1653.^[5] Intensity is from 1665, in Boyle, and intensify from 1817, in Coleridge.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – very great, extreme.^[5]
• 1640 – of persons, feeling deeply.^[5]
• 1665 – intensity.^[2]
• 1817 – intensify.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Very great or strong; extreme: intense heat.
2. Showing strong feelings or great effort.
3. Having or showing deep, serious feelings: an intense young man.

Word family

• intensely
• intenseness
• hyperintense
• overintense
• superintense
• intensify
• intensity

Related words

• intensifier
• intensive
• intend
• intent
• tense

Usage notes

Intense and intensive overlap, but intense tends to describe a strength that comes from within, as in intense pleasure, and intensive one imposed from outside, as in intensive training.^[6] Collins notes that intense is sometimes wrongly used for intensive (intensive cultivation), and intensely for intently.^[7]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
7. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins